All about that grace

Last week, my daughter’s school had an inset day, and we decided to go climbing!

I’ll start off by being completely honest: I did not excel. I started by climbing halfway up one the walls next to my daughter, and then got stuck. I couldn’t go up, and I couldn’t go down. I was too scared to let go of the rope and trust the harness. The centre staff had to come over and check I was ok. Obviously, eventually I managed to let go, and floated gently down to safety, but it was an embarrassing few minutes. It was harder than I expected, and it shook me.

The fear of failure can sometimes hold me back. If I’m not sure I can succeed quickly, I may stop trying altogether.

One of the challenges was called “cool bananas”. Instead of a straight up wall, it is a series of banana shaped platforms, each one a step higher than the last. My daughter, Bee, had a go. She got to the third platform, got scared, and jumped down. And then she tried again. And again. And again. At first, she was still only getting to the third platform, but suddenly, she managed to sit on the fourth one. Then she stood. And then she kept trying. Again, and again. The fifth one sitting, and then standing. Then falling off at the third one again.

She just kept going. Not with any agenda – she wasn’t actually trying to reach the top. I think she was just enjoying seeing how far she could go. And with each fall, she just got back up and tried again. Eventually, she made it all the way to sitting on the top platform. And, of course, then she decided to stand on it. Unexpected success!

Of course I am proud of her for getting to the top. But, honestly, I’m even more proud of that desire to keep going and to keep pushing her boundaries, just for the fun of it.

Don’t we all need more of that in our lives? Just enjoying a challenge, for its own sake. And if we get to the top, great!

And I didn’t totally disgrace myself. I did keep trying, and eventually I got to the top of two of the walls. I still couldn’t drift down from the very top – I had to climb down some of the way – but I’m pretty proud of myself, too. For trying, and having fun, and not giving up.

As I look back at our climb, I want to embrace more moments in life where I simply enjoy the moment. I want to be free to keep going, just for fun, and maybe encounter unexpected success. I don’t want to give up when things are hard, or scary. Whether I reach the top or not, it’s about keeping going. And shouldn’t I be teaching this to my daughter, not the other way around?